REFRAINING FROM THE FIGURE OF INNOCENCE.
▻https://thefunambulist.net/history/palestine-refraining-from-the-figure-of-innocence
The figure of innocence is therefore useful in a strategy of perpetuation of the occupation. Let’s try to examine this concept through its two meanings. The first one intervenes in the judiciary realm. In this context, one is said to be innocent as long as s/he has not been proven guilty through a proper judicial procedure. According to this definition, all of the 448 killed and 3,008 wounded in the Gaza strip during these last two weeks can be said to be innocent: children, civilians and people suspected to be involved in launching rockets towards Israeli towns alike. Within this definition of innocence and in the absence of any judiciary procedure, all in Gaza are innocent to the same degree.
Considering the second definition of innocence is also useful. This second understanding of innocence is profoundly linked to the idea of childhood. We say of a child that s/he is innocent in the sense that s/he can have an uncorrupted mode of existence in the world. This is what make us so angry when we see these horrifying photographs of murdered children in the streets or beaches of Gaza. The passage from childhood to teenage or adulthood is characterized by the loss of this innocence. By definition, the ‘corruption’ of the child can only come from causes that are external to her/him. In this sense, nobody in Gaza can be said to still be innocent: the hospitals where children of Gaza are born depend on the will of the Israeli army for their construction, electricity, supplies and general functioning (i.e. whether it is being bombed like they currently are). This dependence renders any innocence impossible since being born during a bombing, a power outage, and/or an overpopulated hospital can only have consequences on the newborn baby. Similarly, the milk drunk by this same baby has either been imported from Israel according to unilateral conditions, or smuggled from Egypt, in both cases influenced by the military blockade. Examples are plethora. The ‘corruption’ by external causes is therefore at work from the very beginning of the people of Gaza’s life to their very end (end that can be determined militarily as we are powerlessly seeing right now). Because the loss of this innocence can only occur through external causes, the perpetrators of these causes — in this case, the Israeli government and army — are to be judged responsible for these ‘stolen childhoods.’